KEY LARGO, Florida (10 Jun 2002) -- A 510' mothballed ex-Navy vessel that Keys tourism interests hoped to turn into a major dive attraction has turned into a colossal flop. Weeks after capsizing and turning turtle during a bungled attempt by inexperienced volunteer ship-sinkers, the Spiegel Grove quietly rolled over and settled to the sea floor of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary today, in about 40 meters (130-feet) of water. The final journey to the bottom was engineered by a professional salvage team, an effort that added an estimated $250,000 to a financially troubled project already badly over budget. While it is a virtual certainty that local dive shops and the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce will try to convince the diving public that the wreck is still a great dive - even on her side - the simple fact is that as she now sits she will just be another hunk of rusting steel for divers to view from a safe distance for a few minutes before their air runs out. The planned features that were to have made the dive special had the ship sunk upright - relatively safe access to the interior of the ship for even novice divers at shallow depths - will now have to be abandoned as far too dangerous. Depth, strong currents, and disorienting effect of the sideways position of the ship combine to make any penetration of the ship inadvisable for most sport divers. Support the American dream!!! Buy a Florida Flop medallion and make us filthy rich! | | Spiegel Grove dream turned into nightmare after bad planning and mismanagement caused the vessel to sink prematurely. Spencer Slate, a Key Largo dive operator and one of the chief architects of the 8-year project to sink the ship correctly surmised the situation weeks ago: "At least if it's on its side, it will be a dive," Slate told reporters. "But it will be a tenth of the dive it could have been [upright]." Stephen Frink - another long-time project supporter had vowed earlier that, "We will do whatever we can to make the ship right...This will be the best artificial reef in the world, especially so when we get it upright." But Joe Farrell, president of the Resolve Marine Group (the marine salvage company that sunk the Grove) told local Chamber of Commerce members Monday night that continuing the efforts to upright the ship would be costly. That message was not lost on project sponsors. "We're done for now," said Jim Lupino, the chairman-elect of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce. And so are the Keys' tourism dreams of creating the "best artificial reef in the world". © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORKSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
